Friday, November 29, 2013

The Salvation Army is reporting a major drop in donations this year compared to the same date last year:

The Salvation Army of Milwaukee County is down $42,694 in its Red Kettles compared with this date last year.

“We are very concerned that we’re down. We need additional red kettle sites, volunteers and more donations to keep critical programs and services operating in Milwaukee County,” said Major Dan Jennings, Salvation Army divisional commander for Wisconsin & Upper Michigan. “The kettles take coins, bills and checks.”

Now some of this might be due to push back to their stringent anti-gay rights stance, but I would suspect that would play a minor role in the drop of donations if it played one at all.

It's much more likely that the drop off in donations is due to the simple fact that people have less expendable cash, thanks directly to Scott Walker's failed agenda. As I keep pointing out, through Act 10 and other maleficent actions, Walker and his fellow ALEC-owned Teapublicans have taken hundreds of millions of dollars out of the economy and given it to their benefactors.

This forces people to decide between niceties, like donating to charities, or paying the bills, keeping food on the table and a roof over their heads. It's pretty obvious what people are choosing.

That said, I have to say that I have not seen nearly the same number of bell ringers that I have seen in the past. If they don't have the bell ringers to help draw people's attention, they obviously aren't going to collect as much money as they used to.

The cuts to education and public workers have not been restored. That 3 billion figure is probably correct though somewhat adjusted for wage increases yet those increases are have not kept up with inflation or the state has refused to even out them in place.